


Envy

by CallingAllCarstairs



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: (for Cap's sake), Canon-Typical Violence, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Explicit Language, Gen, Helpful Jason Todd, Hurt Bruce Wayne, Hurt Dick Grayson, Hurt Tim Drake, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Loss of Control, Mind/Mood Altering Substances, One Shot, Tim Drake is Robin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:34:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25719634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallingAllCarstairs/pseuds/CallingAllCarstairs
Summary: Bruce is having a bad day; everyone else pays the price.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 113





	Envy

Dick was exhausted. It’d been a long night and a long day beforehand. Still, he was glad to be home. Alfred met him in the garage.

‘Good morning, Master Richard,’ he said. ‘Can I tempt you with some sustenance, or will you be following Master Bruce’s example?’

Dick didn’t even have the energy to quip back.

‘I’ll take some food, thanks, Alfie,’ Dick smiled. ‘I should probably clean up a bit first, though.’

Dick’s costume was covered in mud and worse, and even Alfred’s British cool was temporarily interrupted when he caught a whiff of the smell of a hard night’s work. Alfred assured Dick he would take care of his bike and sent him on his way.

En route to the showers, Dick noticed Bruce and Tim working in the lab. Bruce was still in costume. Tim was already in plain clothes, but didn’t seem to be on his way out. He was, however, up way too late for a school night, and pointedly not involved in whatever was engrossing Bruce. Dick poked his head in.

‘Burning the pre-dawn oil, huh? Having too much fun to quit?’

Bruce grunted, not looking up from his work. Tim shot his brother a look. His eyes darted from Dick to Bruce and back again. _Not today._ Dick took the hint, gave Tim a hyperbolic pitying look (earning him an unamused eye roll), and continued on his way.

Just as Dick was about to hop in the showers and clean himself up, Jason stormed in. Dick was surprised; not at the storming - that was just Jason being Jason - but at his very presence. It wasn’t like Jason to be home at all, let alone in the same room as, well, anyone else.

‘Hey, Jace, what’s-’

‘You all think _I’m_ an ass?’ Jason interrupted. ‘That man is such a prick, but he’s basically God to you, and _I’m_ the ass?’

Dick couldn’t help but smirk a little.

‘At odds with father dearest again, are we?’

‘I’m using the damn rubber bullets, and he’s still laying into me about it!’

‘You _know_ he has a thing about guns.’

‘I heard him blow off you - even _you_ \- just now!’

‘He’s just tense, is all.’

‘I’m pretty sure he’s holding Drake in there against his will!’

‘Tim doesn’t have a curfew, Jason.’

Jason sighed and sat down hard on the bench.

‘He shouted at Alfred. _Shouted_ shouted.’

This took Dick aback. Still, Bruce _had_ been tense.

‘That’s not…unprecedented.’

‘Can you think of a time when it ended well?’

‘Fair point. Still. He probably just needs to decompress or something. Give him some time. If he’s still like this tomorrow, I’ll talk to him.’

‘Talk, talk, talk…’

Jason trudged off to the showers grumbling all the way.

Dick let out a thoughtful sigh, stashed his gear, and went to clean off.

Back in the lab, Bruce was still immersed in a slide, and Tim was counting. 5 _98…599…600_. Ten minutes of unused silence was enough for him.

‘Bruce, I’m wiped,’ he said.

No response.

‘I’m heading up to bed.’ He rose to his feet.

Nothing.

‘You should probably do the same.’ He headed toward the door.

Bruce’s voice came out in a low rasp. ‘Pathetic.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘I said you’re pathetic.’ Bruce stood up suddenly, knocking his stool away. He hurled a set of test tubes toward the stunned Robin.

‘What the hell are you doing?’

‘Pathetic and weak.’

‘Stop!’ shouted Tim.

Bruce aimed a blow directly at Tim’s head. Tim ducked.

Jason was just finishing getting dressed when he heard the sound of shattering glass. He grabbed his guns and came running back into the Cave.

Bruce had a struggling Tim by the ankle and was dragging him right toward Jason. Jason panicked.

_What the fuck is going on?_

He started trying desperately to somehow shoot Bruce backward. The Batman armor took hit after hit, but nothing seemed to slow him down much.

‘Drake, what the fuck is going on?’

‘I don’t know!’ Tim was clawing uselessly at the ground. ‘Bruce! Snap out of it!’

But there was no hint of sanity in Bruce’s eyes. Jason thought he saw him actually frothing at the mouth. In a stroke of luck, Tim managed to slip out of his sock and made a break for the access tunnel, but the monster formerly known as Batman was on him immediately. He slammed Tim against the wall, and lifted him up, one hand pressing firmly at the Boy Wonder’s throat.

Jason didn’t know what to do. He switched his magazine out. This was getting serious, and rubber wasn’t doing the trick.

_What the hell is taking Grayson so damn long?_

Tim was scrabbling at Bruce’s oppressive grip, but his fingers and Jason’s bullets and curses were having no effect. Bruce just growled and pressed harder. Tim stopped struggling. His arms dropped. Jason’s stomach felt like a stone - he knew that last moment too well - and he was repulsed to feel a sick gratification knowing that this would tear up Bruce for the rest of his life.

_Then again,_ Jason thought grimly, _I might not be around to enjoy it if this keeps up._

But Tim wasn’t gone yet. His eyes widened suddenly and he started gesturing wildly at the wires hanging on the opposite wall and staring at Jason with frantic eyes. Jason snapped to. _Right._

‘Now!’ he shouted, firing at the wires. Tim pushed off as hard as he could from the wall behind him, Jason kept firing at Bruce’s armored chest, and Dick was very suddenly on the scene, also out of uniform, shoving Tim out of the line of fire and tackling Bruce backward toward the flash of electric current exposed by Jason’s bullets. Bruce let out a grating scream as he was hit by the shock and fell limply to the ground. Jason slowly lowered his guns. He went to help Tim to his feet, but following his stunned gaze, saw something worse than a rabid Batman.

Dick was lying next to Bruce, eyes closed, a stain of blood steadily burgeoning through his shirt.

_Fuck. Ricochet._

‘I didn’t - he wasn’t there! He wasn’t supposed to be there, goddammit!’ Jason mumbled.

He snatched up Tim’s abandoned sock and tried to slow the bleeding. At least Dick was still breathing.

_For now._ _We need Alfred._

He turned to Tim, but the kid was clearly not functioning. Jason grabbed the back of Tim’s head and made him meet his eyes.

‘You here?’

Nothing.

‘Keep pressing. I’ll get Alfie. Keep pressing.’

Tim nodded. Jason bolted.

By the time Jason returned with Alfred, Tim had cleared Dick’s airway and was using fresh cloth from his own shirt to control the bleeding. Tim’s hands were shaking. Silently and carefully, Tim and Jason moved Dick to the medical suite while Alfred scrubbed up. Jason went to secure Bruce in the holding cells (getting in an extra kick or two) until they could sort out what to do with him, then put in a call to Leslie. By the look of it, Alfred couldn’t handle this one on his own. Tim was standing at Alfred’s side, still dumbfounded, but dutifully producing whatever Alfred said he needed at every turn.

When Leslie arrived, she went right into action, and Jason (somewhat forcibly) removed Tim from the medical suite. The kid was in shock, covered in blood, and about a hair’s breadth from breaking down, if Jason was any judge (and he absolutely was). He took Tim back to a quiet corner of the Cave and applied some first aid of his own. Tim wasn’t talking, but he’d also nearly had his windpipe crushed, so that wasn’t exactly unexpected. Once he’d gotten him patched up and cleaned off, Jason sedated the little bird so he would get some rest. It would be hours before they knew anything about Dick, and there was no chance Tim was going to fall asleep on his own after this.

Jason checked on Bruce (a little disappointed that he didn’t get to use the tranq gun he’d brought along just in case), took a long while cleaning up the tunnel, and put in a call to Babs as late as he thought he could get away with it. No need to make her worry any longer than she had to.

By the time morning rolled around, Babs was stoically watching over Dick, and Jason was babysitting a slightly-less-catatonic Tim in the newly destroyed lab. It’s where Bruce had been working when he’d gone berserk, so hopefully it held some clue. At Tim’s mimed behest, they both had rebreathers and limited exposed skin. There were splattered substances all over the wreck of the laboratory, and Tim had been investigating them one at a time.

_And taking his sweet time about it…but that’s probably not a bad idea right now_.

He’d been working on this last one for over an hour. Finally, he seemed satisfied and jotted down a short note:

_Langstrom. ≤ 18 hours._

Jason took out his rebreather. ‘Eighteen hours. From now or when it hit him?’

_Now._

Jason set off immediately for the cells. Without hesitation, he aimed the tranq gun through the cell door and shot two darts into an already drooling Bruce.

_That should do it._ He smirked to himself. _I could get used to being one of the good guys._

Jason returned to the lab to find it empty. It took all of five seconds to find Tim back at Dick’s side.

Dick was slowly coming to. Leslie held his hair back and told him she wanted him to wake up. It was going to be all right.

Jason sighed quietly and nodded to himself.

_I guess I’m done here._

He turned on his heel and headed down the access tunnel once more, hands in his jacket pockets. A stifled cough made him turn around as he reached the exit. Tim was there, still holding the pen. He held up his hand. _Thank you_ it said.

Jason smiled.

‘Just promise me you’ll give him hell when Bruce wakes up.’

Tim smiled back.

**Author's Note:**

> The title is the name of the song that (regardless of its lyrics) inspired the story. Check out 'Envy' by Chevelle to give it a listen.
> 
> It's a one-shot for now, but we'll see what happens!


End file.
